Gustave Doré: illustrations to Don Quixote

Academy Editions Ltd, London [Published Date: 1974]. Soft cover, 127 pp. Contents include: Introduction, brief bibliography; Plates. Black and white illustrations throughout. [From back cover] Gustave Dore was one of the most prolific and popular illustrators of the nineteenth century. Although he longed for official recognition from the Salon for his "serious" paintings and sculptures, it was through his graphic work that his reputation and fortune were made. Dore is best known in England for his shattering portrayal of the London poor, but to many people in his own day and in our own, his designs are the definitive visual interpretation of the classics of Balzac, Coleridge, Perrault, Dante and Rabelais. Dore''s 231 illustrations for Cervantes's Don Quixote occupy a special position in his oeuvre. The Gothic mannerisms and supernatural trappings which marked his other work yield place in the Don Quixote to a series of designs remarkable for both their authenticity of detail and their compassionate treatment of the aged hero. All the full page engravings after Dore's drawings for Don Quixote have been assembled in this volume, providing a coherent visual commentary of the knight's most famous adventures. This collection is at once a definitive graphic representation of Cervantes's masterpiece and an eloquent tribute to- both Dore's imagination and his